Dame Zaha Hadid, DBE was announced today as the last member of the judging panel of Tamayouz Award Iraq’s first design excellence award for graduation projects in Iraqi Universities.

The Priktzer Architecture Prize winner will be joined by 11 other high profile architects and academics such as the Dean of Engineering and Computing Faculty at Coventry University Professor Paul Ivey, Ayad Al-Tuhafi the CEO of The Forma Group, The Iraqi award winning architect and researcher at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Denmark Dr. Khaled Al-Sultani.

Dame Zaha Hadid who has signed earlier this year an agreement to design the Central Bank of Iraq has also offered diamond sponsorship to this award to ensure the award’s future development.

Tamayouz Award coordinator Ahmed Salah said: “Tamayouz Award has achieved an important milestone by bringing together prestigious International organisation like Zaha Hadid Architects and Coventry University with Iraqi construction firms and universities to work together in order to improve the architectural situation in Iraq”.

All of this comes as a reaction to what is happening in the Iraqi cultural and architectural scene where developers are knocking down historical buildings, the only evidence of Iraqi traditional architecture left, replacing them with low quality schemes.

Iraqi firms have shown an unprecedented support for Tamayouz as two of Iraq’s major construction and architecture firms - Al-Dulaimi Group and Dewan Architects and Engineers - offered jobs for the winners.

Zaha Hadid Architects, Coventry University, The United Nation’s Global Compact – Iraq, Al-Dulaimi Business Group, Dewan Architects and Engineers, Iraqi Business Council in Jordan and Architecture For Humanity have put all their weight to support this initiative and introduce design excellence to Iraqi students of architecture.